Outbreak of Salmonella Kottbus in Alfalfa Sprouts
Outbreak of Salmonella Kottbus in Alfalfa Sprouts Alfalfa Sprouts Arizona, California, Colorado, and NewMexico, February-April 2001 February 6, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association MMWR. 2002;51:7-9 On March 12, 2001, the CaliforniaDepartment of Health Services (CDHS) identified a cluster of SalmonellaKottbus isolates with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)patterns. During February 1--May 1, CDHS identified 23 patients with S.Kottbus infections in several California counties and an additional patient fromArizona. This report summarizes the results of the investigation of thisoutbreak, which identified cases in four states and implicated alfalfa sproutsproduced at a single facility. The median age ofcase-patients was 36 years (range: 9--72 years); 16 patients (67%) were female.Twenty-one patients developed an acute diarrheal illness, and three patients hadurinary tract infections. Three patients were hospitalized. Using a standardizedquestionnaire, a matched case-control study was conducted. A case was defined asculture-confirmed S. Kottbus infection with onset after January 2001 in aCalifornia resident with an isolate having the outbreak PFGE pattern. The first10 reported California patients were matched with two controls by age group,sex, and city prefix